SA pressure group demands investigation into Lungu’s death 

A South African pressure group, Progressive Forces is demanding a probe into circumstances surrounding the death of former Zambian President Edgar Chagwa Lungu.

Lungu died at the Medforum Hospital in Pretoria on June 5 this year and it was reported at the time that he had succumbed to cancer.

Apparently, there is a protracted court battle between the Zambian government and the late Lungu’s family over his burial.

The Zambian government wants Lungu’s corpse to be brought back to Zambia for a state funeral, while the family wants Lungu to be buried in South Africa.

PFSA spokesperson Bonang Seboloane led a delegation of civic members to the SAPS Gauteng Provincial Head Office in Johannesburg on Monday to hand in a petition addressed to Acting Minister of Police Professor Firoz Cachalia and Gauteng Provincial Police Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni.

In the petition the Minister and the Commissioner are called upon to investigate Lungu’s death.

“There are allegations that former President Lungu didn’t die of poisoning; that he was actually poisoned and that the South African government had a hand in his death together with agents of the Zambian government,” said Seboloane.

“Member of the Patriotic Front in Zambia (Lungu’s political party)Raphael Nakacinda said Lungu was poisoned with the help of the South African government and Lungu’s daughter Tasila Lungu Mwansa has also indicated that her father was poisoned,” said Seboloane.

“We are asking the SAPS to investigate this matter so that we can clear our name as South Africans,” she said.